After a bit of a haitus during the busy holiday season, I managed to successfully remove the port quarter cleat, which wasn’t an easy task. Since I didn’t have my son or nieces nearby to help me like they did when I removed the starboard quarter cleat, I had to lay on my side, half inside the cockpit locker and half out, reaching up as far as I could, using a long socket wrench extension to back the nuts off the bolts. Once I got all four off, I got off the boat, removed the cleat, then squeezed myself back inside the locker to remove the G-10 backing plate. It came off easily since it was just stuck there with 5200 residue from the bolts.
Since the new, stainless cleats have a different bolt hole pattern, I’m going to have to re-drill both the deck and the backing plates. I also need to squeeze myself back inside both lockers to put tape on the underside of the existing deck holes so I fill them. I’ll do that first, and then I’ll drill the holes for the new cleat, but I’ll paint the deck in the spring before I attach the new cleats.
I had planned on replacing my Nicro/Marinco solar vent with a new one since the motor of my old one is getting rather noisy and it’s not as effective as it used to be. I bought a new 4” vent, just like the old one so it will fit in the same deck cut-out hole I made a number of years ago. When I opened the box, the new vent seemed pretty big, so before I completely removed the base of the old vent, I positioned the new vent on top just to see how it would fit. I couldn’t believe it - it’s too big!
Old vent in place, up against the cabin “step.”
Another deck-view angle.
Top motor/fan removed.
New vent - too big as it will hit the cabin step.
I had positioned the old vent as close to the cabin “step” or “bump” as possible to leave as much as the foredeck clear. But the new Marinco vent, while designed to fit in the same hole as the old one, has a bigger footprint above the deck by more than an inch! Ordinarily, it wouldn’t be any big deal, but since the old one was so close to the step, the new, larger vent would get caught on the edge of the step before the vent could be tightened flush to the deck. If I had only drilled the old hole an inch farther away from the step, everything would be fine. It looks like I’ll have to keep the old vent and see if I can repair it instead. Let’s hope I can return the new vent. I know Marinco sells a 3” vent, but the cut-out hole is a full inch smaller. While the top would fit just fine, the part that goes into the deck would be too small and there would be too much slop with not enough deck material for screws to go into. Rats.
In the meantime, there’s plenty of other work for me to do once I finish preparing the new quarter cleats. I hope to address some of the mast projects sometime this week, including replacing the missing turnbuckle pin and any bent cotter rings. The days are getting longer, right?